Speculation on Salazar Nomination

By George Wuerthner, 12-30-08

Many of my friends in the environmental communities were disappointed with the recent pick by President Elect Obama of Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado for the position of Secretary of Interior. The Secretary of Interior overseas the BLM, National Park Service, Minerals Management Services, Fish and Wildlife Service, that collectively administer management on about 1/3 of the land in America. Some groups, including myself, favored the appointment of Congressman Raul Grijalva of Arizona, a well known progressive from Tucson, Arizona, as Secretary of Interior. I’ve worked with Grijalva on several issues, and I know he is well informed, and more importantly, cares about protecting our public lands. So why would Obama select someone who is considered at best middle of the road for Secretary of Interior?

First a little background on Salazar. Prior to becoming a US Senator in 2005, Salazar’s had a variety of life experiences that his supporters argue makes him qualified for such an appointment. He grew up on a ranch, farmed, owned a Dairy Queen, and was Executive Director of Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources. Prior to his election as US Senator he was the Attorney General of Colorado (a post previously held by the infamous Gale Norton, Bush’s disgraced Secretary of Interior).

How you view Salazar is somewhat like the question of whether the cup is half empty or half full. Among those who view Salazar as a half empty cup is Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity. Suckling notes that Salazar voted against increased fuel efficiency standards for the U.S. automobile fleet; to allow offshore oil drilling along Florida’s coast; to permit the Army Corps of Engineers to ignore global warming impacts in their water development projects; against the repeal of tax breaks for Exxon-Mobil: supported subsidies to ranchers and other users of public forest and range lands; and threatened to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when its scientists determined the black-tailed prairie dog may be endangered.

In what can’t be a good omen, natural resource and industry groups were generally supportive of Obama’s pick of Salazar. For instance, the National Mining Association spokeswoman Carol Raulston said her group has had an excellent relationship with Salazar going back to his time in state government. Marc W. Smith, executive director for the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, noted that Salazar has backed offshore drilling for oil and gas.

Though Salazar can’t be characterized as a progressive, given his record on other issues, he is also not likely to see his role as someone who should facilitate the pilfering of the public lands as did Bush appointments.

Those viewing Salazar a bit more optimistically point out that he is not hostile to conservation values. He has 81% lifetime score and 100% in 2008 from the League of Conservation Voters (Grijalva had a 95% lifetime score). Salazar opposed Bush administration plans to lease on Colorado’s Roan Plateau, and to set up an oil shale leasing program in the northwestern part of the state. He also opposed opening up Alaska’s Arctic Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and was a sponsor several wilderness bills in his home state.

So we know he is not ideologically opposed to environmental protection if there is a ground swell of support for a specific position. One of my friends within the DC environmental community said he believes environmentalists will be able to work with Salazar, though we will have to create the political space for him to do the right thing.

THE POLITICS BEHIND HIS NOMINATION

So what were the politics behind this choice? I have some insight from friends of mine closer to Obama’s transition team as well as ideas of my own. 
As one might imagine, there were a lot of political calculations in the Salazar nomination. Traditionally the appointment of Secretary of Interior goes to a Westerner. This is based on the premise that since the bulk of public lands lie in the West, a Westerner will have a better understanding of the issues and consequently be a better steward of them. I will point out that this premise--with a few exceptions--is flawed. Westerners like Gale Norton, James Watt, and Dick Kempthorne are only a few of the Westerners who helped industry to fleece the public lands.  Be that as it may, Obama was not going to challenge tradition. So political observers speculate that Obama felt he had to appoint someone from the West, and preferably not someone from the West Coast (or Left Coast as some people characterize California, Oregon and Washington).

Second, Obama wanted to have a cabinet that reflected America’s make up. Hispanics voted for him in good numbers, and he wanted to have several Hispanics in prominent administrative positions. Since he had previously picked Bill Richardson of New Mexico for Commerce Secretary, his choice of prominent western Hispanic democrats came down to Salazar and Grijalva.

In weighing who to select, a few other political considerations came into play. Colorado voted for Obama, giving that state to Democrats. And Salazar was very active in promoting Obama in the state. By appointing Salazar to a prominent position in his government, Obama is “rewarding” both Coloradans and Salazar for their support and of course hoping to set the groundwork for continued democratic voting patterns in the state.

Furthermore, by removing Salazar from the Senate, Mark Udall, who was just elected to the US Senate, becomes Colorado’s Senior Senator. Udall is far more progressive than Salazar, and likely this move was seen as a positive change to the Senate. Udall is much more likely to support broader Obama’s agenda than Salazar.

And this gets to what may have been the larger political calculation. In the list of things that Obama has on his plate for the coming term, public lands reform is not at the top. His political strategy and program includes dealing with global warming; ending the war in Iraq, fixing the economy, reforming health care, and improving education. These are very difficult and in some cases controversial issues. 

To push that program he will need all the cooperation he can get, including the votes of western conservative Republicans. Obama, no doubt, did not want to begin his administration’s tenure with a fight over his appointment to Secretary of Interior and use up any political capital over something that would distract him from his larger goals.

So is the nomination and potential confirmation of Salazar bad for public lands and the broader environmental agenda? We may have lost the first battle for Secretary of Interior, but I’m not ready to say we lost the War yet. We have to note that Obama is aware that the Bush administration basically condoned the abuse and/or thief of public resources for private gain.

At the nomination of Salazar, Obama said: “I also want an Interior Department that, very frankly, cleans up its act,” Obama went on to say: “There have been too many problems and too much emphasis on big-time lobbyists in Washington and not enough emphasis on what’s good for the American people, and that’s going to change under Ken Salazar.” If Obama keeps what’s good for the American people as the guiding principle of the Secretary of Interior, we can expect much better management of our public lands.

In addition to Obama’s basic propensity to work for programs that are seen as beneficial to the public rather than industry, I could note that the appointments of under secretaries and other staff under the Secretary of Interior could make a big difference in how things work out on the ground. Let us not forget that the Forest Service under Bush was run by a former timber lobbyist Mark Rey. I suspect we’ll see more environmentally friendly appointments in an Obama administration.

In the end the job of the environmental community is the same as it’s always been: to inform the public about the real costs and benefits of various environmental choices, and persuade Americans that preserving and protecting the environment is in everyone’s best interest. If we are successful and create a parade, politicians like Obama will surely be glad to lead it. 

George Wuerthner writes about environmental issues and other essays can viewed at http://wuerthner.blogspot.com/